1,972 Indians make 'ghar wapsi' to Maha by special flights

Mumbai, May 19 (IANS) A total of 1,972 Indians have reached Maharashtra in special flights under the Centre's Vande Bharat Mission from 10 countries, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said here on Tuesday.

The 13 special flights brought back 822 people hailing from Mumbai, 1,025 people belonging to the rest of Maharashtra and 125 people from other states in the country, he said.

Another 27 special flights are expected to be operated to bring back the people from Maharashtra who are stranded in different countries due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown over the coming weeks.

Till date, the highest number of people -- 653 -- came from the UK, followed by 243 from Singapore, 208 from New York, 201 from Malaysia, 195 from Chicago, 150 from the Philippines, 107 from Bangladesh, 107 from San Francisco, 78 from Ethiopia, 16 from Oman, 12 from Afghanistan and 2 from Kuwait.

"All the returnees have been sent to precautionary institutional quarantine for 14 days by the state government, including those from other states which are not ready to accept them," Thackeray added.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made arrangements for institutional quarantine in various hotels, and arrangements have also been made to send those from outside Mumbai to their respective districts, said the Chief Minister.